Religious Hypocrisy: The Age Of Reason

Student Name Course Instructor Date Religious Hypocrisy Matters of spiritualism and faith are more often taken to be guided by the religious believes that one adheres to. Thomas Paine’s story “The Age of Reason” Highlights the key question about religious beliefs of people and the authentic guideline that guides the morals in the society. He advocates for personal decision making instead of using religious institutions as a guideline for moral uprightness because of the hypocritical nature of religion as depicted through the institutions of religion. His arguments about religion and the authenticity of religion in helping believers grow morally are well supported through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown.” The story highlights the discoveries that Brown makes in relation to his Puritan beliefs and teachings which were often made by people who he believed to be true leaders of religion. However, he later realizes that they were among the sinners who only acted saintly in the eyes of the public and used Puritanism as a shield for their sins. Therefore, the theme of religious hypocrisy has been well argued in the Thomas Paine’s story “The Age of Reason” and well-illustrated in Thomas Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown”. Thomas Paine was a renowned author and political theorist who came to the public limelight during the American Revolution with his pulsating and energizing pamphlets that highlighted on major issues that were happening including enslavement. Motivated by his altruistic attribute, Thomas through his writings fought for what he believed which was freedom from all forms of tyranny for all individuals. He notes in the pamphlet “all people have the natural right to be free of all tyranny, physical, mental and spiritual” (662). Thomas went further to mention his doubts about conventional religion and classical Christianity. He argued “the Bible consisted of mythology and had value as a piece of literature but was not divinely inspired” (663). He was very critical of the perception that God manifested himself through miracles and revelations and on the contrary argued that using human reason was the best way of understanding God. He noted in the narration that the church exercised so much political power which attributed to the institutionalization of corruption. He states “All national institutions of churches appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit” (654). In this statement, Paine highlights the religious hypocrisy which is often associated with religious institutions set to offer guidance on morals in society. The religious hypocrisy can also be well illustrated in the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Young Goodman Brown”. In the story, the narrator takes us through the life in the forest by Goodman Brown who leaves his wife at home and goes out at night alone. Goodman comes from a puritan family that believes in God strongly but later he learns that they really were not as purified as they seemed. The man that Goodman Brown walks with tells him about the evil acts of his father, grandfather and other puritan leaders. The man tells him that his grandfather whipped a Quaker woman in the streets of...